Postdoctoral Scholar for a Project to Investigate Cognitive Training in Older Adults

Job description

School of Education - Education

RECRUITMENT PERIOD

Open May 9th, 2018 through June 17th, 2018

DESCRIPTION

We seek to hire one full-time postdoctoral scholar to work on a project funded by the National Institute on Aging entitled ‘Working Memory Training in Older Adults'. The overall goal of the project is to investigate the efficacy of cognitive training in older adults, and to get at individual differences and underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms of training. It is a collaborative and multi-site project conducted by Susanne Jaeggi (UCI) and investigators at the University of Michigan (John Jonides, Patricia Reuter-Lorenz, Priti Shah).

Main duties will include overseeing the day to day operations of the NIA/NIH project, including the design and implementation of working memory interventions that will be combined with either meta-cognitive approaches or brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation). Main duties include collecting and managing the behavioral and neuroimaging data, as well as training and supervision of graduate students and undergraduate research assistants. Other responsibilities include running statistical analyses, as well as disseminating research findings (writing peer reviewed journal articles, presenting at conferences), as well as organizing recruitment and outreach activities targeting senior communities.

The primary appointment will be at the Working Memory & Plasticity Lab at UCI (http://wmp.education.uci.edu), which currently employs 3 full-time lab managers, as well as a large team of undergraduate research assistants, and graduate students from both, the School of Education and the Department of Cognitive Sciences. Furthermore, there are regular interactions with the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC), and there are many ongoing national and international research collaborations providing opportunities for networking and intellectual exchange. Importantly, the postdoc will also work closely with the team at the University of Michigan, which requires weekly skype meetings and occasional in-person visits.

Position will begin in Summer 2018, with the exact start date contingent on the availability of the applicant. Salary is commensurate with experience, plus health benefits. The initial appointment is for 1 year with a possibility of extension depending on funding.

Requirements: Candidates must possess a Ph.D in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, education, or related fields, with a special focus on cognitive aging. Furthermore, successful candidates should have strong methodological and technical skills, management skills, creativity and perseverance required to play a lead role in this sizeable project. Furthermore, they should have expertise in one or more of the following areas and knowledge of the others: working memory, cognitive training, meta-cognition, brain stimulation, functional and structural neuroimaging, advanced methods of assessing individual differences.

To Apply: Applications should be submitted online at https://recruit.ap.uci.edu/apply/JPF04633 Please include a cover letter explaining your relevant background and interest in this project, CV, relevant publications, and names of three references (please do not solicit letters). Review of materials will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.